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Using Rapid Improvement Events for Disaster After-Action Reviews: Experience in a Hospital Information Technology Outage and Response

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2018

Charles M. Little ,
Christopher McStay ,
Justin Oeth ,
April Koehler  and
Kelly Bookman
Charles M. Little*
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Colorado and the Colorado School of Public Health, Aurora, ColoradoUSA
Christopher McStay
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Colorado, Aurora, ColoradoUSA
Justin Oeth
Affiliation:
University of Colorado Hospital, Aurora, ColoradoUSA
April Koehler
Affiliation:
University of Colorado Hospital, Aurora, ColoradoUSA
Kelly Bookman
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Colorado, Aurora, ColoradoUSA
*
Correspondence: Charles M. Little, DO, Department of Emergency Medicine University of Colorado 12401 E. 17th Ave B215 Aurora, Colorado 80045 USA E-mail: Charles.Little@ucdenver.edu
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Abstract

The use of after-action reviews (AARs) following major emergency events, such as a disaster, is common and mandated for hospitals and similar organizations. There is a recurrent challenge of identified problems not being resolved and repeated in subsequent events. A process improvement technique called a rapid improvement event (RIE) was used to conduct an AAR following a complete information technology (IT) outage at a large urban hospital. Using RIE methodology to conduct the AAR allowed for the rapid development and implementation of major process improvements to prepare for future IT downtime events. Thus, process improvement methodology, particularly the RIE, is suited for conducting AARs following disasters and holds promise for improving outcomes in emergency management.

LittleCM, McStayC, OethJ, KoehlerA, BookmanK. Using Rapid Improvement Events for Disaster After-Action Reviews: Experience in a Hospital Information Technology Outage and Response. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2018;33(1):98–100.

Keywords

disasterhealth careinformation technologyquality improvement
Type
Special Reports
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , February 2018 , pp. 98 - 100
Copyright
© World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2018 

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Footnotes

Conflicts of interest: none

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